Consequence
by Anniepopokios
Summary: The sound his fist makes when it collides with Peeta's jaw is sickening. But the damage it has on her is much more horrifying. She leaves him, saying it's his fault, his responsibility...So he waits...and waits. Until he can't wait anymore. Until he realizes she's never coming back.


**I will not bow, I will not break**  
** I will shut the world away**

The sound his fist makes when it collides with Peeta's jaw is sickening. It's a disgusting crack, one that would have made him flinch, if he hadn't been aiming to cause it. Automatically the force brings his opponent to the ground. He glares down at him, the look in his eyes resembling those of a predator about to close in on it's prey.

He can hear her voice in the background, screaming something at him, sounding like an animal being choked. But he ignores her. It's almost funny, how she'd been so hard to ignore all of these years, and suddenly her words do not reach him. Nothing reaches him.

"You're so selfish." He spits the words out, staring down at those blue eyes, they look so scared and confused. But that look is not enough to bring him out of this. Gale's clouded with hate, no reason will reach him, no pleading or begging will halt his actions. In the back of his mind he's convinced Peeta deserves this. Convinced he'd in the right for doing this.

All he can think about. Is the words she spoke earlier. She'd told him she wanted a future with this...thing. This man he found to be so disgusting, someone so damaged he could hardly control his own actions. Something ruined by the Capitol, much like almost everything around them.

His fists couldn't wash away that stench the capitol leaves on everything it's touched. But that would not stop him from trying.

Katniss was behind him, stopped dead in her tracks by the sound of Peeta's cracked jaw bone. She was screaming at Gale to get away from him, pleading with him to stop. She knew Peeta was fragile. He hadn't fully recovered from being tortured by the capitol. She knew Gale was doing so much more than physical damage. Something in Peeta's mind was beginning to connect Gale's fist with the torturers from the capitol, and she could see the panic in his eyes.

But she was defenseless to stop it. Her legs felt like they weighed a ton, she couldn't move. She could only watch, and pray that bloodied fist did not reach it's target again.

It was raining. No. It was pouring.

Cold rain ran down her face, soaking through her clothes and making her tremble. Thunder boomed in the distance, it almost sounded as loud as the pounding of her heart roaring in her ears. But not quite.

Peeta was laying on his side, mud staining his clothes, rain mixing with the blood now rolling down his face and neck.

"I'm sorry," He was probably crying, but she couldn't tell with all the rain. The only thing she could think about was how those soaked clothes were probably going to give him cold...and how bad that would be for his condition, "I need her though." her heart skipped a beat. How could those words, which had always contained such warmth before, sound so pitiful and weak?

"I need her and she needs me," it was true, "I'm sorry if that upsets you. Please understand." But there was no understanding. Gale was enraged. He didn't want to lose her, not to someone as unstable as Peeta. Letting him have her was too dangerous. He didn't trust him, probably never would. He would never forget the first time they'd brought Peeta back from the capitol...his hands curling around her neck, threatening to take her from him forever. No. He would kill before he let that happen.

He would kill him if that meant keeping her safe.

"You'll hurt her," Gale grabbed the collar of Peeta's shirt and yanked him up right. Katniss watched as he struggled in the mud, trying to pull himself away, "You need to stay away from her." He was probably partially correct. She knew Peeta relapsed alot, she knew he was unstable, trouble was her heart had a hard time figuring that out. Seeing him like this only made her want to be with him even more. The need to protect him was so strong, It over powered her, destroying any reasoning her mind could come up with.

Especially now.

He struggled with Gale for a moment, until he managed to bring his knee up on his good leg and ram it into Gale's lower stomach. Immediately he let go, and Peeta fell back into the mud. For a moment he was on his back, gasping and choking for air. But then his brain was panicking, telling him he was being attacked. He acted fast. He could feel a relapse coming on. They happened every time his adrenaline really got pumping, every time he could feel his heart racing. He felt cornered and scared, Gale could easily overpower him.

It was like something inside him snapped.

He labeled them "periods of regression" or "relapses" but what they felt like was completely different. Like every little bone in his body was breaking, and his mind was screaming. It was like entering a whole nother reality. Suddenly his fear was replaced with a blood lust so strong he knew nothing could quench it.

He acted on it.

He attacked.

Suddenly he was on Gale, screaming words at him that didn't translate in his ears. Crazy things he couldn't understand. The world around him was spinning and he felt like he was sinking into something dark. Something engulfing him.

Gale was underneath him, kicking and squirming, trying to get Peeta's hands off of his neck.

Then the blows came down. Peeta's clenched fist slammed into Gale's face, and he heard Katniss yelling above the rain. Every blow took everything from him, all of his energy was channeled into that bloody fist.

But he knew this wasn't going to last long. He was sickly, never healthy anymore. Gale overpowered him again, this time more quickly than the last. Even with his head ringing from Peeta's blows. He growled at him, like an animal fighting for it's life. He shoved the blonde off of him with both arms and then brought his leg up to kick him in his side. Peeta cried out the moment Gale's boot made contact with his ribs.

"You should have never came back!" He screamed and kicked him again, Peeta's cries almost made him feel guilty. If he hadn't hated him so much...they might have. Katniss'es screams could have done that too, but he paid them no mind.

"I lo-" Peeta opened his mouth to speak those words. The ones that enraged Gale, that made his anger so uncontrollable. Instead his words were silenced by Gale's foot, slamming into the side of his face, knocking him down, into the cold mud.

That was when everything seemed to snap back into reality. Suddenly he felt horrible. His rage was gone, like a fire suddenly put out. Just above the sound of the rain he could hear Peeta's sobbing, he laid in the mud, his body curled up in pain. The man who had just lunged at him in attack was reduced to something resembling a broken child, wailing in the mud. Blood stained the wet earth around him, pooling out of his nose and mouth. His pale skin looked a ghastly white against the dark black mud.

Gale watched helplessly as Katniss rushed to his aid. Suddenly he couldn't move. All he could do was watch Katniss crying, clinging to her wounded friend. She looked over at him, and immediately he was struck with guilt. Her eyes were red and teary. Her face looked so distraught. He'd only seen that look a few times, and never before had he been the one to cause it.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!" He never heard her curse... her voice almost sounded foreign to him. She glared at him with so much hate, it hurt. He just sat there, in the mud, letting the rain wash over him, trying to deny what he had just done.

"Peeta, it's going to be okay" Katniss tried to console him, she put her arms around him, feeling his body trembling underneath hers, "shussh it's okay. I'm here." He was whimpering underneath her, and he was losing too much blood. There was so much of it. How could Gale cause that much hurt?

Why?

He was supposed to be her best friend.

"I'm so-" He opened his mouth to say those words. He wasn't. Not for hurting Peeta, but only for causing that terrible look on her face. Only for causing her sorrow. But she glared at him, silencing him.

"I hate you."

Those words hurt more than any weapon could.

Because they were justified.

Because nothing he said or did would prove he didn't deserve them.


End file.
